I have had multiple issues with the news feed messages being too vague. Recently:

The talk about the Bothcon event is intriguing, but nowhere- not on the forum thread or the news post -does it say specifically what Bothcon is, where it's being held, what it's for... I feel like I already have to know, in order to read the news feed, so I can't get involved or think about participation.

Secondly, the post today mentions an event in Anaheim, but since I don't live in a state with the town Anaheim in it, I'm in the dark to exactly what part of the united states Anaheim is in. I can google it, but it's just a peeve.

Basically, it'd be nice to double-check your posts to be sure they inform everyone, and not just a niche group. It's obviously not a big deal, but it's an easy thing to fix, and the last thing you want to do is keep less involved members of the community out of the loop.

At the risk of sounding like a jerk (which I'm not trying to, but will risk it anyways) I'll say that it sounds like you aren't taking responsibility for the level of involvement you've chosen to take within the community. The information about Bothcon is on the forums. I could be way out in left field, in which case I apologize ahead of time, but I would think that if I was putting together a mini-event for members of a community and the number of slots was limited, I'd think that I would prefer people who are more involved to participate over those who just check the news feed intermittently. It's certainly not as if anybody is preventing you from participating more, and it seems that there are at least, what, 14 or 15 people by now that are in the geographic area of Bothcon and managed to find the information, so it's not like the info isn't out there.

As for the Anaheim thing, once again, it sounds like the event may not be meant for you, which shouldn't be a big deal, as not all events are meant for everyone. The news blurb does state that it's at Downtown Disney (as in Disneyland) so I once again wonder at what point should others no longer be responsible for disseminating information to you that is readily available.

Again, I'm not trying to sound mean or anything, but if you're ever reading a news article from an online newspaper and something is being discussed that you don't understand and it's not explained further, do you write a letter to the editor and complain or do you google it and find out for yourself?

Apologies to the staff and anyone else if my post violates the policy about being respectful and inclusive. I'm just big into critical thinking and researching things for yourself, and I think that a stance of requiring others to give you information you want rather than researching it for yourself is the source of many societal problems, and I needed to speak up about this.

There are several posts on the subject in community features and a stickied thread at the top of all forums that spell out Bothcon is in connection with Star Wars Days at LEGOLand California.

And there is only one Anaheim that Google says exists, in California. The only other thing close is a pepper or a city, Annaheim, in Saskatchewan.

Interestingly enough, the city is named because of it's heritage both as a Spanish and German settlement area. Ana is in part from the Santa Ana River (itself named after the famous Mexican general), and heim, which means home.

Again, I found it myself. But it wasn't there. if your goal is to have a site that serves the community, it seems counter-intuitive that you'd want to exclude anyone. I'm SURE this isn't your goal- when I see things like this, I want to help. I love FBTB.

For Clarity, the Anaheim issue was not the biggest deal- it wasn't a deal at all, just a trigger. You'd have to be dense not to find the information on your own, and I did find it. Seeing a second news feed that doesn't help me judge at all whether or not I can go to an event with a state name for a reference reminded me of the Bothcon issue, and I thought it my civic duty to mention it so it's easier for staff to judge how they want to compose news feeds- that's all.

It was a real inconvenience trying to figure out what Bothcon was, and when I see a link that says "Click here for more info" and the link still doesn't contain basic info... well, that's a problem, so I thought i'd be helpful and mention it. That was my issue. The news post was inconvenient, because it says "Get involved with Bothcon!" and I don't know what it is, but since there's a link, it didn't strike me as odd. Then I clicked the link to the forum sticky and it didn't have a location, or any event there. it just talked about goodie bags and other things that were already on the news feed.

I really didn't mean to sound accusatory.

I've been building for 17 years, I've been a community member on sites similar to this for 6 years, and I've been on this site for a year. I'm not new, and I'm not looking for the "Lite" experience. What I am trying to do is to be super-casual during the college year and as involved as possible during my summers, and that's difficult if the only people who know about big events are the 50-odd people who know every site, every event, and every location by habit and connection.

FBTB serves as my hub for information, and it serves that fantastically, but some things might have been lost in the lens of "Everyone who matters knows already."

Don't hate me!

Last edited by mdilthey on Sat May 28, 2011 8:54 am, edited 3 times in total.

The original news post for the event doesn't say legoland California, and since there are two Legolands in the US at opposite ends of the country, that's mildly relevant. If a link exists to the Star Wars day event, it isn't anywhere on any FBTB staff news feed that I can find.

This is perfectly fine if you only want specific people- tell me if this is the case! Is this only for people who go every year? I don't know! I just don't see any harm in adding in, literally, one detail sentence that allows every resident on the west coast say "Hey, I might want to go!" even if they're not trying to win the speed-build.

In 2011, we’re planning something bigger in correlation with Legoland California Resort’s Star Wars Days on June 18-19th.

That was pretty easily found via the Bothcon tag in every related news post. Maybe the feed doesn't have that feature, or doesn't go back far enough. Further details have been updated in subsequent posts, but everything is on the forum. Is there anything else missing that you'd like to know? We're happy to clarify anything missing. That's what the forum is here for!

re: problem two, Anaheim ambiguity... the post specifies it's about the sale at the Lego Store in Downtown Disney. I suppose indicating the state and country wouldn't have hurt, but really it's a minor oversight.

Yeah, I mean, neither is serious. To be fair though, digging up the original news post from January is beyond me, and expecting everyone to remember the January post seems off as well. I'm sure the current Bothcon feed could use the details as well.

I looked at the Anaheim post and I thought, "Where is that..." and it reminded me of the Bothcon trouble. Because it was back to back, it inspired a suggestion. I didn't mean to imply that I was unable to find either after looking deeper, but I felt remiss to ignore it if it was going to prevent someone less familiar with the site from participating in your event.